


catastrophe

by spellingbee



Series: Witch AU [1]
Category: Danger Days: The True Lives of the Fabulous Killjoys - My Chemical Romance (Album), The True Lives of the Fabulous Killjoys (Comic)
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, Alternate Universe - Magic, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Animal Transformation, Blanket Permission, M/M, POV Third Person Limited, Pining Kobra, Podfic Welcome, kirbace killjoys
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-03
Updated: 2019-11-03
Packaged: 2021-01-20 15:29:25
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,826
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21283970
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/spellingbee/pseuds/spellingbee
Summary: Marco Campbell is just your average high school junior, slogging his way through the week and napping in the library (and totally not crushing on his best friend).Well...until he accidentally turns said best friend into a cat.
Relationships: Fun Ghoul/Kobra Kid (Danger Days)
Series: Witch AU [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1534283
Comments: 12
Kudos: 36





	catastrophe

**Author's Note:**

> Week 44! Happy week-after-Halloween! 🎃
> 
> big thank you to my friend pink ([pinkstationhero](https://pinkstationhero.tumblr.com/) on tumblr) for beta-reading this! the latin used for the spells was suggested by them! ✨
> 
> this is an AU co-created with my zucchini, ace! we both took the same premise and created something for it in our respective medium; ace a comic, and me this fic. our canons don't precisely match up, but we're both working from the same idea and a similar plotline.  
you can read their frankly amazing comic (and check out some notes on the AU!) here: [funkobraofficial](https://funkobraofficial.tumblr.com/post/188722816536/always-cast-spells-responsibly-kids-witch-au)
> 
> enjoy! 😊

Marco sighs, dropping his bag behind the counter of the library. _ Finally _ he has some time to just chill out. Get some sleep, maybe. Being a library aide is absolutely the best way to get out of dealing with _ stuff _ all day.

He’s heading over to his usual chair--the one hidden behind two bookshelves, where he can nap in peace unless someone manages to stand directly in the doorway of the media room and turn their head just so--when Mr. Pruitt, the librarian, snags him. “Got some work for you today, Mr. Campbell!” he says, overly cheerful. 

Marco barely suppresses a groan, instead simply turning toward him. “Whaddaya need?” he asks.

“Ms. Thompson’s class is doing a research paper,” he says. “Messed up the whole reference section, scattered the chairs and bean bags all over. Get ‘em sorted out, please and thank you!” 

Marco gives a noncommittal grunt and heads over to the reference section. So much for catching a break. Damn it. 

The place is seriously _ trashed. _ Chairs spread out across the little seating area, bean bags tossed all over, books scattered across every flat surface. What the hell? It’s not like it takes _ that _ much effort to put a book on the book cart.

He sighs again, and resigns himself to losing his only free period. He’ll just have to deal with being exhausted the rest of the day. _ Unless _ he can convince the nurse to let him lay down in the office? Nah, she’s caught onto him by now. She wouldn’t buy _ another _ sudden stomach ache.

Marco crouches down and starts scooping books into his arms, and then realizes the book cart’s actually nowhere near here, so he groans out loud and puts the books down on the nearest table before heading off in search of it.

He finds the cart in the fiction section--on the complete opposite side of the library, of course--and pulls it back to the reference section. Ugh, he’s so _ tired, _ fuck... Maybe he won’t even have to fake anything to go see the nurse, maybe all this work will make him pass out and then he can just lay down and not have to deal with any _ more _ of this.

As he’s about to set the books he’s collected down onto the cart, he notices that there’s already a book laying on it. 

Normally, he wouldn’t care at all and would just stick the books on top of it, but there’s just _ something _ about the cover that intrigues him. Carefully, he slips the stack of books to one hand and picks the single book up with the other.

The book is dark blue, and shimmers a little in the fluorescent lights above. He tilts it a couple of times, just to watch the shine shift across the cover, and he smiles a little to himself. 

He can’t quite make out the title of the book--he thinks it might be Latin? But who the hell knows--but it’s silver embossed across the front, and done in a pretty, curly font he really likes. 

He sets the other books down and flips it open to the title page. _ ‘ _ Studio Sapientia Crescit _ : a Book of Spells for the Young Witch,’ _ it reads.

Oh, shit! It’s one of those fake spellbooks they sell in, like, magic shops and stuff like that! It’s definitely not Marco’s thing, but he can’t help but feel a little excited by it, because he knows who’s thing this most definitely is.

_ Dante. _

Dante is Marco’s best friend--only friend, now that Stef’s gone off to college--and stuff like this is his favorite thing. Anything weird, supernatural, extraterrestrial... that’s Dante’s whole _ life, _ practically. He’ll eagerly devour any book on any subject like that, and, well... there’s not much Marco likes more than to see the way Dante’s eyes light up when he’s excited about something.

Marco shoves the book into the pocket of his hoodie and gets back to work. He spends the rest of the period daydreaming about Dante.

\-----

“Oh shit!” Dante exclaims, snatching the book from Marco’s outstretched hand. “Is this a real spell book?! Marco, dude, where’d you _ find _ this?”

“Library,” Marco tells him with a smirk. “Got _ inside sources _, ya know.”

Dante snorts and rolls his eyes, but he’s grinning. “Yeah, sure,” he says. He opens the book and flips through the pages. “Shit, there’s a _ ton _ of spells in this thing! We gotta try one, Marco, c’mon!”

Marco’s heart is fluttering in his chest just from seeing the way Dante’s excitement has grown. It doesn’t matter that this spell book isn’t real, or that Marco’s tired all the way down to his bones, because Dante’s happy, and that’s what really makes _ Marco _ happy.

“Sure,” he says, because why the hell not? “‘S long as it doesn’t take like, tongue’a newt or goblin toes or somethin’. I don’t have that kinda shit in my fridge.”

Dante snorts again, looking down at the page in front of him. “No... think this thing only calls for, like, some candles an’ herbs an’ shit. Mugwort. Ya got mugwort?”

“Do I _ look _ like I’ve got mugwort?” Marco asks. 

Dante shrugs and turns the page. “Guess we won’t be doin’ any astral projectin’, then.” He looks closely at the next page for a moment, and Marco watches the way his eyes shift as he reads. “Oh, shit!” Dante looks up excitedly, and Marco has to pretend he wasn’t just staring at his best friend. “Marco, hey, check _ this _ one out!”

He shoves the open book under Marco’s nose, and Marco pulls back, taking the book and holding it at a distance he can actually read from. “How to call a familiar?” he reads. “Dante, I already got a cat an’ a snake. I don’t need, like, a _ magic _ cat or somethin’.”

“Cats are overrated,” Dante says, waving a hand dismissively. “I want my familiar to be, like, a toad. Or a rat. Somethin’ _ cool. _ Anyway! This is, like, a great spell to try!” He takes the book back from Marco, sitting down on the bed. “It’s supposed to, like, boost your magic or whatever, ‘cause your familiar’s in tune with that kinda stuff.” He looks up again, grinning. “Plus, the only materials we need are candles! And like, to read this spell. In Latin. ...Fuck.” Dante frowns at the page.

And, well, Marco doesn’t wanna see Dante _ frowning. _ “It’s not that bad,” he says. “Latin’s not hard to pronounce, you’ll get it. You’re smart.” 

Dante rolls his eyes again, standing up and setting the book gingerly back onto Marco’s bed. “Whatever,” he says. “I wanna try it, Latin’s not gonna stand in my way, long’s I don’t accidentally summon a demon or somethin’. Heh.”

“If you summon a demon in my bedroom,” Marco says, opening up his door and stepping into the hallway, “I’m gonna fistfight ya in a back alley.”

“Like hell you will, noodle-arms.” Dante bounces after him. “Where ya goin’, man? Thought we were gonna do some _ magic!” _

“Well, I gotta get the candles, don’t I?”

Dante lets out a _ whoop, _ and Marco’s heart does a little flip.

\-----

“Okay, I think I’ve got it,” Dante says, picking up the book of matches. “Gotta light the fourth candle, say the spell, an’ _ then _ light the last candle.”

“Okay,” Marco agrees, not really paying attention to _ what _ Dante’s saying so much as _ how _ he’s saying it, the excitement in his tone.

They’re standing in Marco’s room again, the lights off and a ring of candles all around them. The air smells nice in here, for once. Like cinnamon rolls and holly berries.

That’s what the candles say on the labels, anyway. Marco’s not too sure what ‘frosty icicles’ are supposed to smell like though.

Dante strikes a match and lights a candle. He touches the flame to the first wick, then the second, moving clockwise around the ring as Marco watches. After he lights the fourth candle, he blows the match out, shaking it, and drops it in an old glass of water on Marco’s nightstand as he picks up the book.

“Okay,” he says again. “Here goes.” He takes a deep breath and squints at the page, and then begins reading, his voice a little shaky as he works his way through the pronunciation.

“Adtulo me dux meus, spiritum meum, et anima mea.”

Dante’s voice rises as he nears the end of the passage, and once he says the final word, he strikes another match and lights the fifth candle.

The candle wick flares to life, the ring of candles now complete, and Dante sucks in a breath, staring at the center of the circle.

He stares.

And stares.

...And stares.

But nothing happens.

Dante lets out the breath he’d been holding on a sigh. “Damn,” he says. “Didn’t work. Must be a cheesy fake spell book.” He moves to toss the book onto the bed, but Marco stops him, putting a hand on his wrist.

“Wait,” he says. There’s something niggling at the back of his mind, something that makes him reach for the spell book. “I think... I wanna try.”

“You wanna try?” Dante asks, and there’s so much excitement in his voice that it makes Marco’s heart swoop again. “Hell yeah, Marco! Give it a shot, I wanna know what kinda animal _ your _ familiar’d be!”

Marco grunts, unsure of how to respond to Dante’s excitement directed _ at _ him instead of just _ around _him. He opens the book and flips through a few pages before he finds the spell again. “Okay,” he says, eyes scanning the page. “Let me try it….” He takes a deep breath, lets it out slowly, and begins to read. 

“Adtulo me dux meus, spiritum meum, et anima mea.”

Marco’s voice rises as he reads, almost without his consent, and as he continues on, he can feel... something... moving inside him. An energy, maybe. A_ feeling _.

“Veni ad me.”

Marco glances up as he reads the final few words, and he meets Dante’s eyes. The candle light flickers against the whites of his eyes, and he’s staring at Marco with such _ excitement, _ such _ genuine interest, _ that Marco’s heart stutters in his chest, and his tongue stutters on the words. 

There’s a _ spark _ within him, a _ bursting, _ and suddenly the room is filled with light.

The light doesn’t come from the candles, and it doesn’t come from his lamp. It seems almost like it's coming from…

_ Dante? _

Marco squeezes his eyes closed as the white light intensifies, and, though it feels like an eternity, it's only a moment later that the light fades, and he opens his eyes, blinking against the spots in his vision.

"Whoa," he says as his vision clears, "what the _ hell _ was--Dante?"

Dante's no longer standing in front of him.

"Holy _ shit," _ Dante says, from right in front of him. "That was _ intense _ , did you _ feel _ that?!"

Marco blinks. He looks down. There's a pile of clothes on the floor, which wouldn't really be unusual, except for the fact that, A: they're Dante's clothes, and, B: there's a cat standing on them.

He blinks again. It's not _ his _ cat. Tomato is big and orange and fluffy. _ This _ cat is small and lean, and it's one of those hairless varieties, and it's _ standing on a pile of Dante's clothes. _

Where the hell is Dante? And _ why are his clothes on the floor? _ If Dante's running around the house naked, Marco has no idea how he'll handle that!

"Dante?" he calls tentatively, not looking away from the cat for fear of catching sight of Dante in the nude.

"What?" asks the cat, perplexingly.

Marco stares at the cat. The cat blinks its wide green eyes at him. 

"What the fuck, Marco?" the cat says. "Why are you lookin' at me like that? And why the fuck are you even taller'n usual?"

"You," Marco says, and stops. Why is the cat speaking in Dante's voice? Why is the cat speaking _ at all _?

"What _ about _ me?" the cat’s face scrunches up, and it looks like it’s thinking hard about something, confused, but _ cat faces aren’t supposed to show human expressions like that. _ The cat looks down at its paws, and then turns its head quickly, flicking its tail. “What the hell? Marco, what the actual _ fuck?” _ It looks at him again, eyes wide with alarm. “Marco, did you _ turn me into a cat?” _

And that’s when it actually _ clicks _ in Marco’s mind, and that’s when he starts to panic, because somehow he _ turned his best friend _ into a _ fucking cat! _

“Fuck,” Marco says, jumping to his feet. “Shit, shit, Dante, I gotta fix this--” His brain is whirling a million miles a second, and he knows he’s so far out of his depth--so _ goddamn _ far, because _ magic isn’t supposed to be real! _ \--knows he can’t do anything, knows he _ can’t fix it! _

His hands are shaking. He fumbles for the book.

“Marco.” The cat-_ -Dante- _-puts his paws on Marco’s arm. “Marco, calm down.”

“Oh my god,” Marco moans, burying his face in his shaky, shaky hands. “Oh my god, how can _ you _ be the one saying that? You’re a _ fucking cat!” _

“Yeah,” Dante says. “And it’s fuckin’ _ weird, _ but also _ so damn cool. _ Marco! Marco, you _ turned me into a cat!” _

“I know,” he says miserably. 

“Marco, don’t you get it? Don’t you know what this means?”

Marco shakes his head. He can’t bring himself to look at his best friend.

“Marco. It means you’re _ magic!” _

\-----

It’s tough to ignore the fact that your best friend and crush is a cat. And it’s actually really distracting, too. 

Marco’s poring over the spell book, skimming passages and flipping pages as quick as he can, but there’s _ no _ spell for turning someone back into a person, and that’s terrifying, because Marco doesn’t think Dante really wants to be a cat forever, but it’s looking increasingly like that’s what’s gonna happen.

He turns the very last page in the book and groans again. God, he’s so tired. Panicking over the situation earlier had just made him _ more _ tired.

“Can’t find it?” Dante asks, sounding way too fucking calm. 

“No,” Marco says. “Dante, shit, I--”

“It’s okay.” Dante moves toward him, putting his paws on Marco’s thigh and looking at him with those big green eyes of his. It’s unsettling, how much they look like Dante’s eyes. “Marco, it’s fine, we’ll figure it out!”

“You can’t stay a _ cat _ forever!” Marco protests.

“Well yeah, _ obviously.” _ Dante-cat hops off the bed with, well, cat-like grace and walks over to Marco’s desk. He jumps up and nudges Marco’s phone with his nose. “The book’s not gonna help, so ya gotta turn to the good ol’-fashioned internet for answers!”

Marco blinks. “Oh,” he says, because honestly that should be an obvious answer. “Oh, right.”

He stands and grabs his phone, swiping the pattern with practiced ease and pulling up his browser. “Okay, uh, what do I type in? _ ‘How to turn a cat into a human?’ _”

Dante huffs and sits down, his naked tail curling around his adorable little feet. “Maybe!” he says. “Unless you can think of a better idea!”

A thought occurs to Marco then. “Hey,” he says. “Is there a magic shop around here? Like, where you can buy books like that?” He gestures to the book laying on the bed.

Dante perks up. “Hey, yeah!” he says. “There’s gotta be one, right? An’ someone there who can fix this!” He jumps down from the desk and runs to the door. “Ah, shit... C’mon, fucker, I don’t have ‘posable thumbs anymore, ya gotta open the door for me!”

“Dante, you can’t just run down the street like that.”

“And why the hell not?”

“‘Cause it’s _ October _ and cold as fuck and you’re a _ hairless cat.” _

“So?”

“So,” Marco says, emptying his backpack out on the bed, “I’m not gonna let my best friend freeze just ‘cause I got ‘im turned into a cat.”

Dante hisses at him.

\-----

Finding the location of a magic shop is actually pretty easy, thanks to Google. There’s exactly one shop in town, and it’s on the other end of town, on the outskirts.

What’s _ more _ difficult is actually getting there.

Stef’s away at college, so he can’t rely on them to drive him there, and no _ way _ is he asking their parents to take him there. For one thing, it’s a _ magic shop, _ and his parents wouldn’t approve of it. For another, he can’t exactly explain to them that he turned Dante into a cat, and he can’t exactly leave them in the dark as to the reason, either.

That means he has to rely on public transport.

The bus isn’t so bad, honestly, but Marco’s anxiety is always through the roof when he has to go anywhere with people, and it’s worse when he’s _already_ anxious, and worse when he doesn’t have Stef or Dante beside him to keep him calm.  
Well, technically, he _does_ have Dante, but it’s not the same. Dante’s a cat stuffed in his backpack in his lap, not a boy sitting in the seat next to him and rambling on about weird conspiracy theories or whatever Bigfoot news had been on his cryptid forums that morning.

The people at this magic shop better have a cure for Dante, or Marco’s gonna go crazy.

The bus stop is still a couple blocks away from the magic shop, but Marco doesn’t mind the walk. He cradles his backpack in his arms as gently and securely as he can, rather than on his back where Dante could get all jangled around while he walks.

“How close’re we?” Dante asks from the backpack. 

Marco quickly shushes him, looking around, but there’s no one nearby to hear his talking backpack, anyway. Quietly, he replies, “Not far. Just up ahead, I think. Oh. There it is.”

The magic shop is built into the other buildings lining the street, nestled in between a florist and a coffee shop. It’s nondescript, with natural wood siding and a little sign declaring the shop “Mama’s Magical Necessities.” 

Marco holds the bag tighter as he approaches, and pauses on the doorstep. What if the people don’t believe him? What if they take Dante away? What if they accuse him of being a witch and drive him out of town? What if they think he’s crazy, what if they _ hurt _ him, hurt _ Dante, _ what if, what if, _ what if?! _

“Marco,” Dante calls. “Marco, hey, calm down. Breathe, buddy. Breathe.”

Marco closes his eyes and focuses on steadying his breathing, calming his thoughts. It’s fine. He has Dante with him. They can’t deny a talking cat when there’s one right in their face. And if they try to do something to him or to Dante, they’ll just fight back. If they have to.

They’ll just have to risk it to get Dante back to normal.

Marco takes a deep, steadying breath and readjusts his hold on the backpack. He pushes the door open, and the bell above jingles.

“Welcome!” calls a cheerful voice from somewhere in the shop. 

Marco swallows and focuses on putting one foot in front of the other, following the sound of the voice to the check-out counter. He walks and weaves around shelves of books, and little crystals in different colors hanging on chains, and bottles and jars of herbs, and candles. Lots and lots of candles.

“I need help,” he says as he reaches the counter, clutching his backpack to his chest. “I cast a spell. And it went wrong. I--” He looks up, then, and stops, meeting the eye of the person on the other side of the counter.

He knows this person, because she goes to his school. She’s in his _ grade. _

Lola Ramirez, with her long blonde hair and stylish clothes and shiny lipgloss. Lola Ramirez, one of the _ popular girls. _

What is _ she _ doing here?! God, Marco can’t talk about _ this _ in front of a classmate! In front of a _ popular _ classmate! She’ll laugh at him, call him crazy, and word of Marco and his “magic” will spread all across the school before he even gets there tomorrow! 

Lola tilts her head at him and blinks. “Marco Campbell?” she asks, and beams at him. “Marco! Hi! I didn’t expect to see _ you _ in here! Gosh, what’s wrong? I bet I can help you, I’ve been getting really good at helping with this sort of thing!”

Marco blinks, his anxiety coming back full force. “Oh. No, uh, sorry. Everything’s fine,” he says.

She frowns, her lips pursing a little. “Oh?” she asks. “But your aura’s _ so _ out of whack. You’re all frazzled!” She gestures to him. 

Aura? Well, fuck, if magic’s real, the aura part must be too, right? “No, I’m--there’s nothing--”

He’s cut off when his backpack starts to wiggle, and Dante curses from inside. “Marco, you bastard!” he says. “Lemme out, okay, I’m _ not _ gonna be stuck like this forever!”

Marco reluctantly unzips the bag, and Dante-cat comes tumbling out. “Hey, Lola,” Dante says, batting a paw at her in a way that would be _ insanely _ adorable if not for the fact that his best friend is a cat. 

Lola blinks. She blinks again, and then _ laughs, _ clapping her hands together in front of her. “Oh my god!” she exclaims. “Dante Gallo? You’re a cat!”

“Yeah, I know,” Dante sighs. “Listen, listen, ya gotta help us! Me an’ Marco were messin’ around with this spell book, right, and we were tryin’ to call a familiar, and nothin’ happened when _ I _ did it, which, _ rude as fuck, _ but then when _ Marco _ did it, instead of callin’ up a rat or somethin’ he turned me into a cat!” Dante huffs, sitting down and wrapping his tail around his feet. “I don’t even _ like _ cats!”

“How can you not like cats?” Lola asks incredulously. “They’re so soft and sweet! And cute! It’s, like, totally impossible _ not _ to love ‘em!”

“That’s not the problem here,” Marco says, his irritation cutting through his anxiety. “We need to know how to turn him back.”

“Oh! Right!” Lola gives him a cheerful grin. “Okay, so first off, what spell did you use?”

“Uh.” Marco reaches back into the bag and pulls out the book. “It was--this one.” He flips to the page with the familiar-calling spell and hands it to her.

“Ooh, this is a really good spell book!” Lola exclaims. “I have one just like this! Or I did, but I lost it somewhere.” She sighs. “I hope I can find it soon, because these things are _ so _ hard to replace!”

“Uh,” says Marco. “Did you lose it at school? In the library, maybe?”

Lola thinks, her lips pursing and her nose scrunching up. “Maybe!” she says after a moment. “Ya know, I _ was _ in the library earlier!”

“Then I think this is probably your book,” he says.

She brightens, closing the book and staring at the cover. “Oh!” she says. “Oh wow, you are _ so _ right, this _ is _ my book! Wow!” She hugs it to her chest. Thank you so much for bringing this back to me, Marco! I don’t know _ what _ I’d do without it!”

“Sure.”

There’s a beat of silence, and then Dante says, “Hey, uh, this is great an’ all, but can I _ please _ get some opposable thumbs now?”

“Oh!” Lola says. “Right, right! Here, let’s see…” She thumbs back to the familiar spell and quickly skims over the passage, humming to herself. “That’s _ so _ weird that it would turn you into a cat. This spell is supposed to, like, bind your familiar to you. Why would it change…?” Lola trails off into mumbling, and she’s clearly talking to herself rather than to either of them.

Marco turns his attention to Dante again, who’s standing now, his tail flicking through the air as Lola reads. This is all too freaky. Magic isn’t supposed to be _ real! _

“Aw, if only Mama were here,” Lola groans, twirling a bit of hair around her finger and biting her lip. “He’s, like, _ way _ more powerful than me!” She pauses, and brings the book closer to her face. “Oh!” she says brightly. “Okay, so, did you follow these steps exactly?” She holds the book out to them and points at the spell instructions.

Marco nods, but Dante shakes his head. “I mean, _ I _ did,” Dante says. “But Marco didn’t light the candles in order, he just used the ones I’d already lit!”

“So you, like, said the spell after the candles were lit?” she looks at Marco, and Marco shrugs, avoiding her eye. “And Dante was the one to light them.” She hums again, her face scrunching up. “That _ might _ be the problem, but I don’t know enough to be sure.”

Lola sets the book aside and turns away then, moving over to a display of crystals and other rocks. She selects one, a thin slice of something that looks like it’s made of solid honey, and brings it back to the counter. “Okay, this is amber,” she explains. “It’s gonna help me see your auras and stuff a lil’ easier, so I can figure this out!”

Marco’s not sure how he feels about that--has no idea what his _ ‘aura’ _ will show her--but it’s to help Dante, so he’ll suck it up and deal with it. 

Dante, on the other hand, looks fascinated by the whole thing. Because of course he does. “Ooh,” he says, flicking his tail and reaching out to touch the amber with his paw, “how’s it work? What’s my aura like?!”

“It, like, makes my power stronger!” Lola says. “Aura-reading is my specialty! I was born with the power, but it’s only been since I started workin' with Mama that I’ve really been gettin’ good at it.” She picks up the amber and cups it in her hands, holding it closely to her chest and muttering a few words Marco can’t make out. 

She opens her eyes a moment later and lifts the amber up to her eye, staring at Ghoul through the yellow lense, and there’s a sharp _ something _ in her gaze, in her demeanor maybe, that Marco can’t quite put his finger on, can’t quite describe, but he can _ feel _ it. It feels almost like... the way he’d felt back at home, when he’d said the spell and--

He shakes his head, not wanting to think about it anymore.

“Oh,” Lola says softly. “Your aura is... hm.” She frowns, and turns her gaze to Marco. That strange sharp feeling of _ power, _ of a weird _ energy _ hits him again, and he stares at Dante to keep from meeting her gaze. Dante’s watching him, eyes too wide, too cat-like, too _ Dante- _like.

“Your auras are connected,” Lola says, setting the amber down. “That’s so strange! Why would a spell to call a _ familiar _ make….” She mutters something again, looking down at her book. She sets the stone aside, and immediately, the sharp feeling goes away.

Dante places his paw on the book. “Lola,” he says. _ “Please _ fuckin’ tell me there’s a way to change me back?”

“Hm?” Lola looks up from her book, eyes wide. “Oh! Oh, yeah, of course! Hold on, this might take a minute…”

She reaches under the counter and pulls out a little cloth bag. She opens it and reaches in with thumb and forefinger, pulling them out and dropping some powder of some kind in the palm of her other hand. “Put your hand on Dante,” she says to Marco, “and repeat after me.”

Hesitantly, Marco places his hand on top of Dante’s head. Dante pushes his head against his palm, and Marco’s torn between thinking about how cute he is, and how _ incredibly goddamn weird _ this is.

“Regressus,” Lola says, looking down at the spell book on the counter.

“Regressus,” Marco repeats, watching her.

Lola lifts the book up closer to her face. “Regressus rector,” she says.

Again, Marco repeats it. 

Lola sets the book down and blows the powder out of her hand and into Dante’s face. Dante coughs, and then sneezes so hard he goes flying off the counter and onto the floor. There’s a sharp, bright _ bang _ that Marco doesn’t hear so much as _ feel, _ and Marco jumps, reaching down to pick Dante up off the floor so they can continue with the reversal spell or whatever the hell this is, but when he looks down, he’s surprised to find not a cat, but actual, _ human _ Dante laying on the floor.

And he is, of course, completely naked.

Marco barely registers the expanse of bare skin before he’s slapping his hand over his rapidly-heating face and struggling out of his hoodie. This is even _ worse _ than finding his best friend naked in his bedroom!

“Everything okay?” Lola asks, and Marco waves a hand frantically in her direction. 

“Don’t look!” he exclaims. “He’s naked!”

“Not anymore,” Dante says, and Marco hesitantly peeks out from between his fingers, hoping that Dante’s actually serious, and also that his face isn’t as beet-red as he’s sure it is. 

He finds Dante standing in front of him, the red hoodie thankfully covering up everything that needs to be covered. Marco lets his hand drop, still all too aware of the rush of blood to his cheeks, but he doesn’t say anything, just nods and turns back to Lola.

Lola beams between them both. “Looks like you’re all set, then!” she says brightly. “Ooh, hold on, I think I have an old pair of sweats in the back. Let me get those for you!” She turns and bounces through a curtain-covered doorway behind her.

Marco looks down at the counter as she leaves. He doesn’t want to think about this evening’s events, wants to tune it all out and pretend it didn’t happen, but he knows he’s still got a lot to deal with before that can happen.

“Holy shit,” Dante says beside him, and Marco stiffens. “Marco. You’re, like, _ actually _ magic! Holy _ shit!” _

Marco flinches, and looks at him. Dante’s staring up at him with a frankly _ amazed _ expression, wonderment in his thankfully-human eyes. Marco’s immediately filled with conflicting nervousness and glee, the two feelings warring in his chest. He clears his throat, looks away before his stupid crush on Dante can get the better of him. “No I’m not,” he says. “That--it’s not real. It isn’t--I’m not--”

“Dude.” Dante sounds almost _ offended. _ “I’m pretty sure I _ really _ turned into a cat. Like, that was pretty fuckin’ real. You’re seriously gonna deny _ that _ happened? I came here in your _ backpack!” _

“No, it--yeah. That definitely happened.” He still can’t really wrap his head around it, doesn’t _ want _ to wrap his head around it, but there’s really no denying that his best friend was a cat just a couple minutes ago. “But it wasn’t _ me. _ I mean, I’m not--I’m _ not _ magic!”

“Um,” Lola interrupts, having come back through the curtain. “Marco, I’m, like, _ super _ sorry to eavesdrop on you, but you’re like, probably the most powerful witch I’ve ever met. Besides Mama, I mean. Oh--here’s the pants, Dante. Sorry, I know they’ll be too big on you, but you can roll the cuffs up and cinch the drawstring real tight!”

Dante takes the gray sweats from her and starts pulling them on. Marco averts his gaze again. “So, hold up, what’s that you were sayin’ about Marco bein’ a witch?”

“Well, yeah,” Lola says with a shrug. “I mean, there’s really no use hiding it from other witches. I can see the magic woven all through your aura! I never noticed before, prob’ly ‘cause at school we don’t really hang out, so I never get a real good chance to look at you.” She beams, as if she hasn’t just dropped an enormous bombshell on Marco that he wants _ absolutely nothing to do with! _

“Uh,” he says. “No, I don’t think--”

She waves him off. “There’s really no need to be so modest!” she says. “I can tell you’ve been studyin’ magic for a while. There’s no need to hide it from me, we’re both witches.” She leans down and grabs something from beneath the counter, and when she straightens up, she has a pouch Marco can only assume holds the same kind of powder she’d used in the reversal spell, and a little black card of some sort. She hands them both to Marco.

“Just in case it happens again!” she says brightly. “Some reversing powder for you. Normally it costs $15, but I don’t think Mama’ll mind me givin’ you some for free!” She nods to the black card, and Marco looks down at it.

_ ‘Mama’s Magical Necessities,’ _ the card says in white script across the top. Below that is the shop’s address and phone number. 

“Look on the back!” she says. Marco flips it over and finds another phone number, written in the same shimmering color as the title of Lola’s spell book. “That’s Mama’s personal number,” she says. “If anything weird happens again, I think it’d be a good idea if you talked to him personally. Like I said, he knows a _ lot _ more than I do!”

“Right.” Marco’s _ definitely _ not going to be calling the number, because now that the spell’s broken, he’s going to do his best to pretend magic’s not a thing. Even though he knows Dante’s never gonna let it go.

“Well, I’ll see you in school tomorrow!” Lola says.

“Right.” Marco’s suddenly _ exhausted _ again, and he turns just enough to confirm that Dante’s fully dressed. “Let’s go, then.”

“Don’tcha wanna know more about magic?” Dante asks. 

Marco shakes his head. “Gonna miss the bus,” he says, but he doesn’t know if that’s true or not. Has no idea what time it is, or when the next bus’ll come. He just wants to leave.

“I’ve gotta close up shop soon, anyway,” Lola says. “But you’re both welcome to come by anytime!”

“Thanks. Bye.” Marco takes Dante’s arm and pulls him toward the door. Only once they’re standing on the sidewalk again does Marco let go of him.

“Holy shit,” Dante says again, walking beside him. “Can’t believe my _ best friend _ is seriously a _ witch!” _

Marco grunts at him.

“Seriously, I know you’re not feelin’ great right now, so I’m gonna letcha off the hook for now, but we are _ gonna _ talk about this tomorrow!”

Marco grunts again. He doesn’t know what this means, how things will change now that he knows magic is real, knows he can _ do _ magic. All he knows right now is that he wants to go home and sleep for a week, and that he’s glad his friend has his opposable thumbs back.

The chill October wind blows over the bare skin of his arms, and he shivers.

Somewhere far away, a single black dot appears on a map.

**Author's Note:**

> leaving the ending fairly open because this is the beginning of a series! if you want to be notified when more of this AU is posted, I'd suggest subscribing to the series rather than to this work, as all future updates will be semi-enclosed one- or two-shots rather than additional chapters.
> 
> EDIT 1/22/2020: abracafuckyo on tumblr drew some GREAT art for this AU! Check it out here: [[LINK]](https://abracafuckyo.tumblr.com/post/190405498745/fanart-of-enby-partypoison-funkobraofficials)


End file.
